Unions

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Elections - GOP - Jobs - Pensions - President - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yeah, I know… it’s like a broken record around here. But, here is another voice coming to our side to agree with us that public employees unions are antithetical to good government, wholly un-democratic, and, therefore, quite un-American. This time it’s the well-regarded Michael Barone echoing our mantra.

Barone is one of the best political reporters in the country and in his own inimitable way has jumped on the anti-union bandwagon (not that he never has in the past, just that this piece is particularly on par).

Before he gets to government unions, one of his points is that unions aren’t even needed in the private sector anymore because all the evils that employers perpetrated in the days of yore have now been regulated away by governments and laws. Because of an active government unions just aren’t needed to protect workers anymore, says Barone. It is a good point, after all.
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Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Politico had a story about Big Labor penned by Jeanne Cummings, the reporter famed for going after Sarah Palin’s Party purchased wardrobe during the 2008 presidential campaign, that was an object lesson in Old Media bias. Her piece headlined “Labor helps kill its own top priority” is a great example of using language to subtly shade the arguments, in this case those of Big Labor, to elicit a positive view of the ideology contained in the issue. Her piece very subtly shades the goals of Big Labor in a positive light easily giving the reader a feeling that Big Labor’s goals are good and noble and is a perfect example of how the media creates emotional appeal for the left’s actions.

Because it is such masterfully crafted example of subtle bias, it deserves to be studied closely.

Cummings Begins her propping up of Big Labor by saying that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is “bad news for health care” and will mean that Republicans can “block the Employee Free Choice Act,” and so she immediately casts the possible actions of the GOP in a negative light at the outset. “Bad news for health care”? It is said as if the GOP was against “health care.” It isn’t. And of course “block” is certainly a negative action. In any case, she started by shrouding the GOP in negativity right away.
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How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education

February 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that a teacher that had 30 some years ago allegedly impregnated a 16-year-old student, a few years later sexually accosted two 12-year-old students, and was accused of molesting yet another student four years after that, would be out on his ear never to teach or be allowed around children again.

But the New York teachers union would beg to differ.

In fact, the union has differed so much that troubled teacher Francisco Olivares has been continually paid his $94,154 a year salary even though he’s been kept from the classroom for the last seven years.

So, who cares what the union says about this guy? Unfortunately, the union’s resistance to getting rid of him is enshrined in state law. The school can’t get rid of this dead weight either.

As a result, because the school can’t fire him and the union won’t let them, Olivares sits day in and day out in what is called a “rubber room” getting paid his full salary. That is getting paid his fall salary courtesy of the taxpayers of New York.
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Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education”

Business - Children - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Can’t Work in Education

February 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle had a great piece pinpointing exactly why unions don’t work, especially for education. Her piece headlined “How Unions Work,” really brings it home why unions can’t agree to merit pay for teachers.

McArdle’s post was prompted by a piece by left-winger Matthew Yglesias whose post is meaningless and I won’t go into too much here. But it did spur some good points by McArdle. Suffice to say that what Yglesias said was that he thought unions could come to like merit pay but that the discussion is messy because people “have ideological opinions about unions in general.” In other words, Yglesias thinks it’s everyone else’s fault, not the union’s fault.

Yglesias is fooling only himself.
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Why Unions Can’t Work in Education”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town

February 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s Katie bar the door as the Democrats in the Senate try to push as many liars and Big Labor crooks into positions of power in the Obama Administration as they can before they lose their super majority once Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated on the 4th of February.

On Monday, the Democrats pushed through the confirmation for Obama’s Solicitor of Labor despite that it has been effectively shown that she lied in her Senate testimony.

Senator Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) revealed a report that Obama’s appointee as Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, lied several times during her appearance before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May of 2009.

Then on Tuesday, the Democrats with their temporary super majority tried to push through Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is a union-flack and would become the first lawyer employed by unions to take a position that is supposed to investigate and rule for or against unions with an unbiased hand.
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Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town”

Andy Stern - Capitalism - Jobs - SEIU - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor

February 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern said that Senators that vote against his ideas are “terrorists.” That’s right, folks, this union chief is saying that any politician that votes against the politically motivated ideas of Big Labor should be branded a “terrorist.”

This is the sort of gutter rhetoric that union thugs specialize in but regardless Stern should be ashamed of himself for bringing the political debate down into that gutter. Scum. Andy Stern is simply scum for using such idiotic and demagogic rhetoric.
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Union Chief: Senators Are ‘Terrorists’ For Not Voting With Big Labor”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Rights - SEIU - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise

January 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

James Sherk has a very good post over at the Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry blog about how unions have hurt us all by fighting for tax increases.

Unions almost never go on strike anymore. Instead, they fight to get more for their members by lobbying for tax increases. Unions spent tens of millions of dollars last year campaigning for higher taxes across the country: Illinois. California. Minnesota. Washington State. Arizona. In many cases they have succeeded.

Nearly every day now we are visited with more proof of how public employees unions are a danger to this country and Sherk has shown us yet another example.

Sherk reports that in Oregon the public employees unions spent $700 million dollars to increase taxes on the people of Oregon. The unions wanted higher taxes to protect their undeservedly high salaries and rich benefits while the regular folks of the Beaver State lost jobs, had their pay cut, and were generally finding hard times — like the rest of normal, non-government worker America.

Not only are unions working against the best interests of the voters, but they are also working to allow out-of-control spending and irresponsibility in government to grow.

Unions are not only antithetical to good government, they are dangerous to our individual prosperity.
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Heritage: Unions Ate Your Raise”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Liberals - New York - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Ruins NY Shot at $700M in Stimulus

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Being a good conservative, I am torn on this story! It seems that the teachers union in New York State refused to comply with some simple requirements in cooperation with the state government so that New York could qualify for $700 million in federal stimulus money from a program known as Race to the Top.

Now, on my fiscally conservative side I am glad that the federal government won’t be sending this $700 million to New York. In fact, I’d like to see every state be refused this money. In fact, I’d like the federal government itself to be refused this money by the taxpayers!

But this story also reveals how illegitimate these unions are because the requirements were very simple. All the union had to do was agree with teacher merit pay. But, you see, the United Federation of Teachers doesn’t believe that its membership should be held to any standards. Why should a bad teacher be able to be fired they wonder?
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Teachers Union Ruins NY Shot at $700M in Stimulus”

Budget - California - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Pensions - SEIU - State Government - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2

January 27, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

(Editor’s note: Some of this I posted earlier this month, but this is an expanded version that was just posted by BigJournalism.com, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it here, too.)

Steven Greenhut has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California’s budget and economy.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public employees unions that, “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.

Approximately 85% of the state’s 235,000 employees (not including higher education employees) are unionized. As the governor noted during his $83 billion budget roll-out, over the past decade pension costs for public employees increased 2,000%. State revenues increased only 24% over the same period. A Schwarzenegger adviser wrote in the San Jose Mercury News in the past few days that, “This year alone, $3 billion was diverted to pension costs from other programs.” There are now more than 15,000 government retirees statewide who receive pensions that exceed $100,000 a year, according to the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.

That is an absurd reality!
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California, Part 2″

Business - Chicago - Communism - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Illinois - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Newspapers - Pensions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Chgo Trib: Who Will Smack Down the Unions?

January 27, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Dennis Byrne, a columnist with the Chicago Tribune, has a great piece asking the seminal question: what politician will take on the public employees unions?

This is, of course, the question we’ve been asking here for years! Who will stop these union thugs that have bought for themselves a bevy of compliant politicians at the state and federal level who will do their bidding against the best interests of the voters? What politician will step up and cut these thug’s illicit power down for the good of the people?

Seeing as how he is an Illinois columnist, Byrne centers his discussion on the $80 billion shortfall that Illinois’ public pensions are saddled with, but he can just as easily be talking about California, Oregon, Wisconsin, New York or any other state in the Union.

To quantify the $80 billion, Byrne tries to put it in context:
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Chgo Trib: Who Will Smack Down the Unions?”

Budget - Business - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Membership Down Another 10%

January 25, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

With some ups and downs, unions have been steadily losing members for quite a while and 2009 is no exception. According to the Labor Dept., private-sector unions lost 834,000 members last year.

On Friday, the Labor Department reported private-sector unions lost 834,000 members, bringing membership down to 7.2% of the private-sector work force, from 7.6% the year before. The broader drop in U.S. employment and a small gain by public-sector unions helped keep the total share of union membership flat at 12.3% in 2009. In the early 1980s, unions represented 20% of workers.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that it isn’t likely that the union jobs lost will come back as union jobs if they ever come back at all.

But the Journal doesn’t stress the most important union fact nearly enough. Unions that serve government workers in still on the rise and form the largest section of union workers.
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Union Membership Down Another 10%”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Greenhut has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public unions employees that “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Liberals - President - Socialism - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Sign On To Obama’s Penalizing of Banks

January 22, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston


According to The Hill, “several union officials” plan to make Obama’s newest attack on America’s banking industry part of their criteria for determining which candidates to support for 2010.

So, the unions want to use support for this economy killing tax as a criteria for supporting a candidate. If a politician is for it, then the unions are for them.

Immediately after his defeat at the hands of Massachusetts’ voters, Obama rushed out to reiterate his plan to put a confiscatory tax on banks in the hopes of diverting attention from newly elected Senator Scott Brown.

Obama claimed that this new tax would force these eeeevil bankers to “pay back” the bailout money that Obama lavished upon them last year. Obama plans a fee on 50 banks that would last 10 years.
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Unions Sign On To Obama’s Penalizing of Banks”

Budget - Business - Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Massachusetts - Republicans - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP

January 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michelle Malkin has a post that reports about the hilarious episode of union whining that is being laid out by the President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Andy Stern. He wasted $1 million of his member’s dues money trying to shore up Massachusetts loser “Marcia” Coakley but is he blaming the Democrats for this debacle? Nope, he’s mad at Republicans!

Why did Coakley croak? Why it’s because of those dastardly Republicans that have held up Obamacare, dontcha know?

From the SEIU website we get these hilarious words:
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SEIU Wastes $1 Million on Coakley, Blames GOP”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Socialism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage

January 19, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Union operative Melissa King of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) has been arrested for stealing $42 million in union funds to support the lavish lifestyle to which she and her daughter have become accustomed. It is being called the biggest union theft in history. So why haven’t we heard of this union theft? Why hasn’t it been all over the news?

That would be a good question and Brian Johnson, for one, asked the question himself. Johnson makes an interesting point when he notes that the Old Media have lost its collective mind over the Bernie Madoff scandal, yet they’ve made barely a peep about this monumental theft by a union member.

Famously nicknamed the “sandhogs,” the LIUNA is a union that represents the workers that dig the tunnels that are networked throughout New York City. It is they that are responsible for sewer tunnels, the subway, and other such excavation work.
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$42 Million Union Embezzlement Case, Little Media Coverage”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages

January 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if there were ever any doubts, the unions bosses that descended upon the White House earlier in the week appear to have succeeded in getting their members excluded from the so-called Cadillac taxes on expensive healthcare packages.

The Obama administration, having been bought and paid for by unions, agreed to demands that unions be excluded from the onerous taxation that many of the rest of us will be forced to pay to float Obama’s budget busting Obamacare plans.

The unions pretended themselves to meet Obama in the middle by agreeing to put a time limit on this sweetheart deal. It was agreed that the unions would be exempt from these taxes for the next 18 years after which they’d then have to pay the tax like everyone else.

But, come on. Does anyone believe that 17 years from now that the unions would not be right back up at the White House demanding to have that 18 years extended or the tax exclusion made permanent? And does anyone believe that their demands would not be easily agreed to by pliant politicians looking for Big Labor’s giant political donations?

If anyone doubts that once Big Labor gets an exclusion it will never be rescinded, then they are not very bright!
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Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Chicago - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Illinois - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - Patriotism - Society/Culture - State Government - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Unpatriotic Illinois Business Owner Flies Mexican Flag

January 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

An owner of an apartment complex in Rolling Meadows, Illinois has decided to fly the Mexican national flag side-by-side with the U.S. flag, both on 30-foot flag poles and both at the same height. Apartment owner Mike Sparks says he’s doing it as an advertisement of sorts to entice Mexican immigrant tenants to come live in his apartments.

Local residents, however, are not as enticed by Sparks’ anti-American advertising campaign and say that he should follow flag codes which often state that the U.S. flag should always be higher than a flag of any other nation.

This flag argument comes up a lot. The problem here is that the so-called flag codes are not enforceable by authorities. In essence, they are customs and suggestions, not legal requirements. The simple fact is the U.S. flag codes are not laws and carry no penalty for violation. It may be a case of there-outta-be-a-law, but the fact is there are none.

The fact that the apartment owner didn’t really violate an actual laws, though, does not detract from his un-American attitude. It is patently obvious that Mr. Sparks does not see any reason to revere the U.S. flag enough to bow to tradition and place the foreign flag at a lower staff. And that isn’t the only problem with this situation.
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Unpatriotic Illinois Business Owner Flies Mexican Flag”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Illinois - Liberals - Mayor Richard Daley - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Unions and Corruption Plague Chicago’s Convention Business

January 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center is one of the largest convention halls in the world. With a total of 2,670,000 square feet of exhibition space and clocking in at a building cost of nearly one billion dollars it had better be one of the biggest, after all Chicago does do things big. Sadly that includes big corruption and unfortunately that corruption is turning “the city that works” into the city that lost its jobs.

This week Chicago’s Mayor Richard “King” Daley railed against the conditions that have made Chicago’s convention business a wreck these days. Along with Governor Pat Quinn, Daley has unveiled new work rules that would prevent unions from striking and would change union policies so that the high, high costs of bringing a convention to Chicago might come down.

Naturally, Daley was too weak-kneed to assign the blame where it mostly belongs: unions. Even as all his fixes center on alterations in union operations, Daley refused to say this is mostly the fault of the overweening and costly unions.
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Unions and Corruption Plague Chicago’s Convention Business”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike

January 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday I posted a story about how the two big public employees unions were looking the other way on Obamacare and helping Obama to pass his socialist take over of our healthcare system even though the plan would hike taxes on their very own members and would devastate their helathcare plans. Well, not all unions are willing to hurt their own membership merely for political reasons.

Of course, in the past we’ve posted stories (here, and here) pointing out that there are the several unions that are not bending over backwards just to hand Obama a political victory and today The New York Post reported on several New York unions that are just as unhappy as those that we’ve previously mentioned.
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…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare

January 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at BigGovernment.com, Don Loos posited an excellent reason about why the big public employees unions are falling all over themselves to help Obama force Obamacare down America’s throats even though their members would lose their lavish healthcare plans as a result. The reason? $19 billion in likely dues money that these unions will get when helathcare is taken over by the federal government is the reason.

It is true that everyone in the country will be hurt by the current Obamacare policies, it is true that everyone will experience less healthcare coverage at higher costs, it is true that government will ration healthcare and the elderly and very young will find less access to healthcare, it is true that government will destroy the best healthcare in the world. But the bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, feel that the trade offs will be worth the loss.

… and to be sure neither Stern nor McEntee will lose their own Cadillac healthcare plans regardless.
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Unions to Rake in $19 Billion Per Year From Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Family - Free Trade - Illinois - Liberals - Oregon - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike

January 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you Tea Party goers in the western U.S. want a specific battle to fight there is none better than ballot measures 66 and 67 in the State of Oregon. The venerable Beaver State is preparing to chase out even more jobs and intends to tax its industry and small businesses to death with these badly timed measures but Oregonians have a chance to stop them by voting “no” on both 66 and 67.

During the worst national and state-wide economy since The Great Depression, with Oregon families losing jobs in every corner of the state, with businesses going out of business everywhere, the high-minded, left-wing state government has decided in its inestimable wisdom to launch the largest tax hike on the business community and the so-called rich in Oregon’s history. In 2009 over 1$ billion in permanent tax hikes was signed into law by Governor Ted Kulongoski, the drunken sailor that sits in the State House in Salem.
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In Worst Economy In Decades Oregon Considers Massive Tax Hike”

Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Liberals - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Case Against Public Sector Unions

January 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

By now you are all familiar with my beating on my little unions-are-bad-for-government drum… ya may even be tired of it by now. Still, I’d like to pass on the work of friend to the blog David Denholm who has also addressed this point in the past.

On the Public Service Research Foundation website can be found Denholm’s excellent article titled, “The Case Against Public Sector Unionism and Collective Bargaining.” In it you’ll find some great points and a thorough discussion on the evils that is a unionized government workforce.

One of the best insights that Denholm has is that a unionized government workforce eliminates the democratic right of the voters to affect their government. (download pdf copy)

By making the union a full and equal partner at the bargaining table, compulsory public-sector bargaining laws deprive the public of its right to participate in policy making. This point was emphasized in a U.S. District Court opinion which upheld the constitutionality of a North Carolina law declaring public-sector union contracts to be void. The Court said:

Moreover, to the extent that public employees gain power through recognition and collective bargaining, other interest groups with a right to a voice in the running of the government may be left out of vital political decisions. Thus the granting of collective bargaining rights to public employees involves important matters fundamental to our democratic form of government. The setting of goals and making policy decisions are rights inuring to each citizen. All citizens have the right to associate in groups to advocate their special interests to the government. It is something entirely different to grant any one interest group special status and access to the decision-making process.

This reflects my own points made so very often right here on the blog. The incestuous relationship between union — that becomes a patron of politicians — and politicians — that return that patronage — wholly cuts out the voter’s ability to direct government to their desires and needs.

Anyway, Denholm makes some great points and his piece is well worth the read.
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The Case Against Public Sector Unions”

Business - California - Capitalism - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Republicans - SEIU - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding

January 5, 2010 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another example of why unions are antithetical to good government, a pliant, left-wing judge in California has ruled that the Schwarzenegger Administration cannot furlough state workers that belong to three powerful public employees unions.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been battling to cut his over spent state budget for several years now and one of the solutions to the problem that he lit upon was the idea that he might furlough his workforce. He would give these workers a few days a month off without pay and this would save the taxpayer’s millions. It is a good idea and one that real-world businesses are forced to employ all the time when things get tough.

But here come the state unions to prevent this simple cost saving measure even though it is common as dirt in the real-world sector.
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Once Again Unions Find a Pliant Judge to do Their Bidding”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Crime - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government

December 31, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I know I’ve said it before, but unionism is antithetical to good government. It is impossible to have both unions and effective government in a democratic republic such as ours. Unions destroy good government, waste money at all levels and they move strictly against the best interests of the voters in all cases. Once again my axiom is shown as a truism with a report by Michael Barone with his Dec. 30 Examiner piece.

Barone details the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll that reveals that Americans that aren’t in government unions and government jobs feel that the economy and the job outlook is getting worse while those in government jobs and unions think everything is going swimmingly.

That isn’t because the government jobs are materially better, but that the government jobs are raiding the public treasury and returning nothing of worth to the country through undue influence on politicians. You might ask why government workers feel things are so good if their jobs provide nothing of worth to the country? Good question. The problem is, even as government jobs are useless to the health, wealth, and welfare of the country, even while government jobs tear us all down and make us weaker in every category, they do provide something of relative worth to politicians: campaign cash.
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Two Americas: One Struggling, One Happy, Unionized, and in Government”

Barack Obama - Congress - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - House of Representatives - Islam - Islamofascism - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Security/Safety - Senate - Society/Culture - Taxes - Terrorism - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

DeMint Decries Union Obstruction in TSA

December 30, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Democrats are trying to paint the GOP as “obstructionists” for blocking the appointment of Obama’s choice of Erroll Southers to head up the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Democrats are claiming that by blocking the closure of debate on Southers the GOP is trying to obstruct “tighter security at airports.”

But there is an ulterior motive in play for the Democrats, naturally. And, again naturally, it is an effort by Democrats to hand a victory to unions. One of the things that Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) is trying to stave off is the unionization of our airport security personnel as the Democrats are trying to slide this by the American people in the guise of “security.”

DeMint brought this up in an appearance on CNN on Dec. 29. When asked why he is putting up a protest about Souther DeMint noted that Obama waited 8 months to appoint someone to fill this spot then wanted the appointment to sail through with no debate.

But DeMint also warned about the stealth unionization that Obama is trying to slide past the American people.
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DeMint Decries Union Obstruction in TSA”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Blocks Red Cross Blood Donation

December 24, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In their greedy desire to steal even more money from employers one union has even gone so far as to block Red Cross blood donations from getting to a hospital as well as picketing blood drives from private companies. In other words, these union thugs have put money and their quest for power above the health, welfare, and medical needs of real people.

As BigGovernment.com reported a few days ago, union workers for Red Cross have been picketing locations in an attempt to disrupt Red Cross Blood Services operations. In one case, the Red Cross was blocked from delivering blood that was supposed to go to save the life of a two-year-old child.

The unions were so disrupting delivery of life saving blood that the Red Cross had to resort to the courts to stop the union thugs from stopping them.

The whole fight seems to be over pay raises and the Red Cross says that they’ve already cut the salaries of non-union employees and its time the unions shared the sacrifice. In this bad economy everyone is suffering but unions refuse to bend to reality and would rather see a two-year-old child die for lack of life saving blood than to give an inch like everyone else has to.

This is the logical, and disgusting, end result of unionism.
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Union Blocks Red Cross Blood Donation”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter

December 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recalcitrant teachers union in Florida once again shows that reform for the sake of the kids doesn’t interest it. A federal program called Race to the Top bestows federal money on any district that institutes merit pay and reforms its schools. Guess who hates the idea. Yep, you guessed it: Florida’s teachers unions.

Instead of launching in full support of school reform in order to help kids get a better education, the union has announced that it will instead be foot draggers and opposers.

Rightly or wrongly, the federal government is offering billions of federal dollars to Florida schools, but the teachers union wants to stand in the way of that largess because it opposes requiring its teachers to be worthy of their pay through merit.
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One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Jobs - Liberals - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Cops Insist on Getting Paid for Dressing Themselves

December 16, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is another reason why unions need to be destroyed…

Do you think your boss should pay you for getting dressed in the morning or for taking off your day’s clothes to climb into your snuggly Pjs each night? No reasonable, sane person would. But unions are neither reasonable, sane, nor apparently interested in what’s good and right. At least the moron unionists in Oakland, California are illicit like that because the thugs of the police union have found some halfwit judge to agree with them that the city… that would mean the taxpayers… should pay them for zipping up their fly each morning and taking off their clothes at the end of each day.

In the height of arrogance, idiocy, and theft of taxes, these Cop thugs have been suing the city to get paid for “donning and doffing,” or in more sensible English, for putting on and taking off their uniforms each day. It’s bad enough these creeps had the gonads to make this idiotic attempt to steal the taxpayer’s money in the first place, but the feckless “legal” system in California has allowed it to go on AND have absurdly given these greedy public servants a victory over it all.
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Cops Insist on Getting Paid for Dressing Themselves”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax

December 12, 2009 by

By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press reports the words of Lily Eskelsen, vice president of the National Education Association, who went to Washington D.C. to protest the so-called Cadillac healthcare plan tax currently in the Senate’s healthcare bill. “We should tax the millionaires, not teachers and bus drivers,” she told reporters.

This has been the constant refrain from Big Unions since Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) included the taxing plan into his Senate version of Obamacare earlier this year. This 40 percent tax plan would kick in for any employee whose healthcare plan reaches $8,500 per year for individuals or $23,000 for families.

Of course, there is a fatal flaw in the Democrat’s assumptions of what this tax will do. As the AP reports, “The tax would raise some $150 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Democrats’ nearly $1 trillion health care bill.”
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Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax”

Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - House of Representatives - Liberals - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas

December 9, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Weekly Standard has an excellent new article in its latest issue that reports on the discouraging story of the Washington D.C. teachers union that is rushing headlong toward destroying the successful and popular federally-funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).

The program has helped many disadvantaged D.C. are kids get a better and safer education than they would have gotten in the violence plagued public schools system. But Democratic lawmakers in Congress have continually announced their lack of support for the voucher plan despite the inner city kids that have benefited from it all.
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The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas”